A historic reference for what?
For flipping the party without leaving it...from the inside or by effective successful pressure from the outside.
I am starting to see how this is all so much like when Newt was in the House, and why he made so many enemies.
By historic, I also meant, something like this I got from a friend of mine - Newt often talks in dog whistles for conservatives, and I am just learning to hear them:
My most recent email to my state volunteers:
Many of you may have heard Newt mention Leonard Wood and the 1920 Republican Convention, the last one to really be "brokered", but more specifically because he cited Romney as the weakest front runner since Leonard Wood. Who was Wood? He was the Army Chief of Staff, and Physician and Graduate of Harvard Medical School. (Interesting coincidence? He died in 1927 in Boston.) A football star and coach at Georgia Tech, and winner of the Medal of Honor.
Pretty impressive, huh?
Going in to the convention, Wood was unquestionably the favorite, particularly after winning the New Hampshire primaries. But in irony of ironies, he never got above about 31% of the delegate votes.
He topped out in the middle rounds, 6, 7 and 8 but then in the 9th and 10th ballots, a winner emerged. That winner received only about 6% of the vote until the 8th ballot when finally his numbers rose.
On the 10th ballot, the GOP nominated Warren Harding.
Some of you may not know Harding, others may remember him for The Teapot Dome scandal.
However, that is not what I know Harding for. He was not responsible for Tea Pot Dome, but what he unquestionably WAS responsible for was ending the Depression of 1920.
I have to believe Newt knew the parallels of his reference, but to give you some brief information.
Woodrow Wilson, who President Obama most closely resembles, despised the Constitution, felt that the US should subjugate itself to his newly created League of Nations, and worse, passed the 16th Amendment, the income tax amendment.
Wilson's Progressive policies put us in a Depression that led to almost 12% unemployment. His income tax rates combined with the Tariff Bills of 1913 stifled the economy. Worse, the government grew exponentially under his watch.
So, what did the wild underdog in the GOP convention do when he became President? He slashed the income tax!!! The result? A huge increase in revenue for the government.
More importantly however, he gave his cabinet clear orders. Cut your departments - cut, not slow the growth of - by 25% this year, and another 25% next year.
Harding slashed government by almost 50% and led us right into the roaring '20's and an unprecedented boom. Sadly, he died before he could complete his work, and the next Progressive, Herbert Hoover, helped lead us into the Depression. He raised taxes after the crash and forced government into the private sector and with huge public works projects. Of course, Hoover learned his lesson and later became a major critic of the New Deal. Too bad he had not learned the lessons of his predecessors, Harding, the 10th ballot nominee, and his Vice President "Silent Cal" Calvin Coolidge.
Is any of this sounding like a blueprint?
Maybe THIS is why you support Newt. Or maybe he didn't' remember this when he mentioned Leonard Wood and I have just picked up on the strange connections?
But, the parallels are almost eery.